Malloy Proposes Disaster Drill, Pilot Program For Micro-Grids

SIMSBURY — Performance standards for power companies, a pilot program for electrical micro-grids and a major disaster drill by Labor Day.

Those are a few of the proposals unveiled Wednesday by Gov.Dannel P. Malloyin an effort to ensure that the state is better prepared to handle prolonged power outages in the future. Although some of his ideas would require legislative approval, others are administrative in nature, he said — "it's [about] holding other people's feet to the fire as well as our own feet to the fire.''

During a press conference in this Farmington Valley suburb, Malloy acknowledged that the state "probably [wasn't] as well prepared ... as we should have and could have been" for a pair of devastating storms that struck the state last year.

The governor came to Simsbury because the community was among the hardest hit by freak October snowstorm that downed untold numbers of tree limbs and trees and plunged hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses into darkness for up to 13 days.

In the aftermath of that storm, as well as Tropical Storm Irene, which blew through the state in late August and also caused widespread and prolonged power outages, two separate studies on emergency preparedness and response were completed.

Using those studies as a springboard, Malloy concluded that the state, municipalities and utility companies must do a better job at anticipating a crisis. To that end, he proposed a large-scale, real-time training exercise that would be conducted by Sept. 1. The disaster drill will cost about $650,000 to stage, he said.

He is also calling for a $1.5 million budget for tree maintenance by the state Department of Transportation, an increase from the current budget of about $550,000.

Malloy's plan includes a pilot program for the development of a micro-grid to serve city centers and other key facilities. Micro-grids are regional, small-scale power systems that can run independently of the larger electricity distribution system. They could help power clusters of prisons or medical units, for example, during a prolonged power outage in a larger area of the state.

And he is proposing that the state set standards for power companies to respond to an emergency and restore power — and impose penalties for those that fail to meet them. Massachusetts has set up such a system, which resulted in one utility company being assessed $2.2 million in a settlement.

"Once standards are established ... then everybody needs to know that there are consequences of not meeting those standards," Malloy said.

One big ticket item on Malloy's storm preparedness wish list is a proposal to "harden" utility company infrastructure by strengthening equipment or even burying powerlines underground. But it would cost an estimated $2.5 billion to do this for 40 percent of the grid, he estimated. Malloy directed state regulators to begin the process of examining the implications of such a long-range project.

Malloy also suggested the creation of a cross-agency enforcement team with members from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection as well as the Public Utility Regulatory Authority to oversee utility companies' management of their poles and wires.

State Sen. John Fonfara, a Hartford Democrat who co-chairs the legislature's energy and technology committee, said he welcomes the governor's proposals.

"Most of this is administrative but to the extent the legislature has a role, we will certainly weigh in,'' said Fonfara, who attended the Simsbury press conference with energy committee co-chairwoman Vickie Nardello.

"I hope we can begin the process before the public's attention and the legislature's attention moves on,'' he added. "We're famous for that."